The Northern Quarter Blog

Well it's really rather exciting in Manchester at the moment. It's the Labour party conference, which means Tony Blair and the rest of the Government are staying in a hotel five minutes' walk from my apartment. A few streets are cordoned off, which is getting some drivers' backs up, but this conference is worth £17million to the city so I'm sure they can cope for a few days. The security is massive - more coppers than a Celtic v Rangers football match! The police have been given £4million by the Home Office, and have created a 'ring of steel' around the G-mex centre and the Midland and Radission hotels. (Tony and Cherie are in the Radisson) It is quite an honour to have so many VIPs in our town at one time, and to top it all Bill Clinton is tomorrow's guest speaker...!

So Edinburgh is over for another year, but here's a pick of the best lines from this year's festival:

No wonder Bob Geldof is such an expert on famine. He's been feeding off "I Don't Like Mondays" for 30 years. - Russell Brand

I'm still making love at 71, which is handy for me because I live at number 63. - Bernie Clifton

After her accident, my nan had a plastic hip put in. But I thought they should have replaced it with a Slinky, coz if she did fall down the stairs again ... - Steve Williams

I'm a big Bono fan, but the man can't count. On "Vertigo", he begins with 'uno, dos, tres, catorce' which is 'one, two, three, 14' in Spanish. So maybe there isn't a crisis in Africa. Bono's just miscounted. - Al Pitcher

I wonder what would happen if Franz Ferdinand were assassinated?" - Glenn Wool

Jennifer Aniston goes to Malibu to shout at the sea. I drink Malibu and shout at pigeons. - Bill Bailey

Nobody thought Mel Gibson could play a Scot but look at him now! Alcoholic and a racist! - Frankie Boyle

I've not seen such a guilty face since I finished my jigsaw of O J Simpson. - We are Klang

Men who blow themselves up are promised 72 virgins in paradise. That's a high price to pay for a shag. In real life you'd be hard pushed to find one virgin. It begs the question: what on earth do they all look like? That's a lot of hairy women. - Shazia Mirza

A hotel mini-bar allows you to see into the future and what a can of Pepsi will cost in 2020. - Rich Hall

My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in customs. - Patrick Monahan

Women want men in uniforms. In fact when you actually get down to it, all women really want are fascists. Hey, you can say what you like about the Nazis but those guys knew how to turn heads. - Dylan Moran

I sent my daughter to a private school. That's 73 grand's worth of education, and now she wants to be an actor? So I've asked her to do porn and give me the money back. - Janey Godley

I can't find a woman anywhere who will touch me with a shitty stick. Fair enough. It is a bit of an unusual request. - Andrew Lawrence

A bloke arrives at a nightclub door and the bouncers say he can't come in without a tie, so he goes to the boot of his car and gets a pair of jump leads, wraps them around his neck and goes back to the doormen. "Can I come in now,' he says to the bouncers. 'Yeah, but don't start anything''. - Jason Byrne

I got an odd-job man in. He was useless. Gave him a list of eight things to do and he only did numbers one, three, five and seven. Had to get an even-job man in to finish it off. - Stephen Grant

Christmases were terrible, not like nowadays when kids get everything. My sister got a miniature set of perfumes called Ample. It was tiny, but even I could see where my dad had scraped off the S ... - Stephen K Amos

I'm a Jew, by the way. It was my agent's idea. - Simon Amstell

Playing poker online is like being mugged without the company. - Lucy Porter

Act your age, not your shoe size ... that means something different on the Continent. - Richard Herring

My friend is Irish. - Oh really?
O'Reilly actually. - Colin and Fergus

Prison governor: "Ladies, I am going to turn this place into Midnight Express. Prisoner: 'Oh, in which case, I think I should tell you now, I'm no good on roller-skates'. - The Dutch Elm Conservatoire

I went to the JobCentre for an interview. I said: "I ain't got no qualifications, no skills and as for my customer service, sod off." She said: "You're exactly what they're after at Dixons". - Simon Brodkin

"If a dog's tail is still wagging, then how can that be rape?" - Marek Larwood

Have you noticed the way that burns victims stick together? - Carey Marx

As of last month we have gay bishops, official. I wonder if this will filter down into the game of chess? Those bishops can make all the same moves, but can only be taken from behind. - Jason Wood

I had a great business plan ... I was going to build bungalows for dwarfs ... there was only one tiny flaw ... - Justin Edwards

I come from a very traditional family. When I was seven, my Uncle Terry hanged himself on Christmas Eve. My family didn't take his body down until the sixth of January. - Nick Doody

I was surprised how British Muslims reacted to the Danish cartoons. I thought: "How can you get this worked up about a cartoon?" But then I remembered how angry I was when they gave Scooby Doo a cousin. - Paul Sinha

I saw a poster for Mission Impossible III the other day. I thought to myself: "It's not really impossible if he's already done it twice". - Mark Watson

Let me tell you what blasphemy is. It's the idea there's a superior being who can make the mountains, the oceans and the skies, but who still gets upset about something I said. He's an all-powerful being, he's just got self-esteem issues. - Reginald D Hunter

I like the Ten Commandments but I have a problem with the ninth. It should be: "Thou shalt not covet they neighbour's ox, except in Scrabble". - David O'Doherty

Americans only re-elected George Bush to prove they had a sense of irony. - Scott Capurro

Irish people love Muslims. They have taken a lot of heat off us. Before, we were "the terrorists" but now, we're "the Riverdance people". - Andrew Maxwell

If I ever saw an amputee being hanged, I'd just yell out letters. - Demetri Martin

Two guys came knocking at my door once and said: "We want to talk to you about Jesus." I said: "Oh, no, what's he done now?" - Kevin McAleer

What Iran needs now is a more modern leader - a mullah lite. - Shappi Khorsandi

Every older generation hates the younger generation, but it used to be that they said the young were getting more and more deviant. "If we wanted fun thenwe went to a barn dance," they'd say. We're the first generation of old people bitching that the young are so tame. Look at these kids - we used to do crack. These pussies just drink Red Bull and go on the patio to smoke. The closest they've come to a fist fight is in a chatroom. "You looking at my girlfriend? Well I'm going to delete you from my MySpace friends list". - Doug Stanhope

Why do women insist on asking men what they're thinking? We're thinking: "Fuck, better think of something to say." Either that or we're imagining that we're spies. - Ed Byrne

I'm mixing beats that are phat and ill, like Pavarotti. - DJ Danny

I don't mind when my jokes die because they go to heaven and get 72 virgin jokes. - Omar Marzouk

People who say they don't swear haven't had the right sex or food. - Russell Howard

Two aerials on a roof fell in love and got married. The wedding wasn't great but the reception was fantastic. - Jimeoin

In the Bible, God made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. That's a pretty good summer for us in Wales. That's a hosepipe ban waiting to happen. I was eight before I realised you could take a kagoule off. - Rhod Gilbert

I grew up in Braintree, the most ironically named town in Britain - there being neither a brain nor a tree for miles around. In Braintree, they think irony comes from elephants. - Luke Wright

My body has changed so much since I have been here. My stomach is fat from the food and booze, my legs are skinny from walking up all the hills. I've decided ET wasn't from out of space, he was from Edinburgh! - Wil Anderson

I've got no problem buying tampons. I'm a modern man. But apparently, they're not a "proper present". - Jimmy Carr

What do you call a skinny Aussie girl with chalk on her head? A Barbie-cue. - Steve Daking

Edinburgh is the only city that I have walked completely around and only gone uphill. - Sean Collins

They say being a hostage is difficult. But I could do that with my hands tied behind my back. - Phil Nichol

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